Oku down to four

Midwest City (Okla.) Carl Albert four-star running back David Oku had everything already planned out. Official visits were scheduled and a decision timeline was already put in place.

That all changed when his father, who is in Iraq serving in the military, advised him to make an earlier decision.

So off the list came two teams, and on the list now is a different team with a late August official visit lined up.

"I'm going to have to cut Michigan and Illinois and no longer take those visits," Oku, the nation's No. 1 all-purpose back, said.

"I'm just not a fan of the spread offense. I don't like being in the shotgun the whole time. Plus, the other schools I have on my list, I feel comfortable with their offensive systems.

"So I'm no longer going to take the scheduled visits to Illinois and Michigan, and I've added Louisville to my list. I'm going to visit them on Aug. 31st. That's the first weekend of the season for them. It's even before we start our high school games down here."

Oku also has visits lined up to Tennessee on Sept. 19 and Nebraska on Sept. 26. Florida State is scheduled for Nov. 7, but Oku said he wants to push that visit up even further, so he can have an earlier decision made.

"The whole thing is if I want to graduate in December, then I need to have the decision out of the way and focus on school," he said. "I found out I have a 2.5 GPA and I'm on track in all of my core classes. All I have to do now is get my ACT score, and I have no doubt that I'm going to do that.

"Plus, my dad, who's in the Army, will be home in October if all goes to plan. If he gets home then I'll want to spend as much time with him before I have to leave in December for school. So when he gets home, I'll be busy with football, school and family. So that makes sense to get the decision out of the way even earlier."

Oku, who is 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, said he's not ready to claim a leader one way or the other.

"The visits are going to be key for me," he said. "That's why I want to get them set up and out of the way, so I can figure out what I'm going to do with this touch decision."

And now it's a tough decision that will come a lot sooner than he originally thought.